Island Memory
by Kyuu333
Summary: Ventus meets the little kids named Roxas, Namine, and Xion while paying a visit to Sora and friends. This is a really bad summary...but still...R&R please?


Okay, this is sort of a "what if" fanfiction. Like, if everyone lived a normal life with school and stuff. I was planning on making a huge story based on all of the Kingdom Hearts games put together and make it more of realism...but I'm not sure how to do that without including the mafia or something. And I am sick and tired of seeing stories with mafia/gangs/kidnappers involved. -_-

But anyways, this is a short part of the story that I thought of, and I thought that it would do fine as a oneshot. It takes place when Sora and them are kids, and when Ventus, Terra, and Aqua are around. I actually haven't played Birth by Sleep yet; I've only watched some cutscenes, so sorry if I go OOC...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

* * *

"Oh! There you all are!"

All three kids that were sitting together on a collapsed tree looked up simultaneously after hearing the new voice. A small blond-haired girl was sitting in the middle of the bunch, in the middle of sketching something on a sketchbook that was about as big as she was. Sitting on either side of her, watching her draw, were two other kids. The one on the left was another girl with short black hair, and the one on the right was a boy with scruffy blond hair. They all had beautiful deep blue eyes. The person who called them was jogging up to them from the sandy beach, waving happily. He was a tall young man, who looked about fifteen or sixteen years old. His swirled spiky hair was styled in place with careful consideration, and he also had deep blue eyes like the three children. As the young man approached, all of the kids stared at him cluelessly, acting like they didn't think that he would ever approach them.

"I've seen you guys a lot over here...why don't you ever go play with your siblings?" he asked, looking at them with questioning eyes. There was no answer, as the three kids stared on without making a sound. The young man fidgeted a little, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the silence and awkwardness. "Um...well, I don't think we've actually met. I'm Ventus! Nice to meet you guys."

The kids were still silent, and Ventus made another effort to get along with them. "So...I've heard a lot about you three from Sora, Kairi, and Riku..." He looked over at the girl with the black hair. "You're Kairi's cousin, Xion-" he turned to the girl with blond hair. "-you're Kairi's twin sister, Namine..." Lastly, he turned to the boy with a friendly smile. "...And you're Roxas, Sora's twin brother."

Seeing that he attracted attention somehow, Roxas ducked behind Namine shyly, hiding from Ventus. This made Xion giggle, and she and Namine looked to each other with humorous smiles. Ventus laughed silently along with them, turning at an angle so that he could see Roxas behind Namine.

"Hey, Roxas! Don't be shy, I don't bite," he laughed. Xion took this excuse to tease the little boy.

"Roxas is being a scaredy-cat," she said with a grin, leaning back to stare at Roxas.

"Am not!" Roxas pouted back, sitting up again. Then, he remembered that Ventus was there, and ducked down again, peeking out from behind Namine's shoulder.

"Aw, come on, Roxas!" Ventus said playfully, poking at the little boy's flat hair. This made Roxas laugh a little, as the hair poking felt kind of funny. Namine smiled as Roxas started to open up a little, and went back to drawing on her sketch pad with her crayons. This made Ventus look at her curiously. "What're you drawing?" he asked her. Namine answered by turning the drawing around to show the young man. What he saw was a cute sketch of three children playing on the beach - two boys and one girl - and also three grownups playing along with them. "This is...?"

"It's supposed to be Sora, Riku, and Kairi playing with you and your friends..." Namine explained, cheeks a little flushed with embarrassment. Ventus glanced to her, smiling brightly.

"I think it's really pretty! You're really great a drawing, Namine! Plus you've captured our images well...me and Terra and Aqua..." he complimented thoughtfully, handing the sketch pad back to the little girl.

"R-really? You really like it?" Namine asked in astonishment, as if she expected him to hate it.

"Yeah, of course I do! I could never draw as well as this..." That was pretty truthful, seeing that Terra and Aqua always joke about his funny looking art. "I kind of want to show this to my friends...is it all right with you?"

Namine smiled warmly and nodded. "You can keep it, if you want," she offered.

"Ah- really? But..." Before Ventus could object, Namine already ripped the page out and handed it to him.

"It's okay! I'll keep drawing," Namine said contently.

"You draw so much, Namine..." Xion sighed. "I never see you without your sketchbook...but still, I like watching you draw." Roxas nodded happily, agreeing with Xion. Ventus grinned at them. They were a bit different than Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Sora was so loud and loved to play, Riku was the 'wise' one of the three, and Kairi just always tagged along with the two boys, usually joking around with them and watching them spar. In a way, Ventus felt as if those three kids reminded him of himself, Terra, and Aqua. Aqua did say once before that Sora was a lot like Ventus and Riku was a lot like Terra, and Ventus had been feeling those similarities between everyone, ever since he met Sora, Riku, and Kairi for the first time. He could tell that Terra felt the same way as well. It felt kind of strange...

"Uncle Ventus!" Roxas suddenly chirped, breaking Ventus away from his thoughts.

"Wh-wha?"

"You're the Uncle Ventus that Sora always talks about, right?" Roxas questioned suspiciously. Ventus twitched a little at the 'Uncle' title that Sora had given him. It made him feel so old whenever Sora called him that...and now his brother learned of the name as well, apparently.

"Um...yeah...but there's no need for the 'Uncle' part...just call me Ventus...or Ven, if you want."

"Huh? But Sora said to always call you 'Uncle Ventus'! He said that Riku said that it's polite to call people older than you by 'Uncle' or 'Aunt'!"

"...In some cases, I guess that's true..." Ventus sighed, "...but you really don't need to for me. Seriously." Roxas eyed him cautiously.

"Are you sure, Uncle Ventus?"

Ventus nodded.

"Oh...okay, then."

_'I wonder what would happen if he called Lea by "Uncle"...'_ Ventus thought to himself, off topic. His school friend, Lea, would probably stare at Roxas with a HUH? look. The thought of that made him laugh a little to himself. Ventus looked over and noticed that Xion was eyeing him and Roxas with a puzzled expression.

"Xion, what is it?" Ventus asked. Xion blinked, obviously not expecting Ventus to notice her behavior. She sat back on the tree a little.

"Well...you and Roxas look alike," she pointed out plainly, though a little hesitant in saying it as if she thought that it would be insulting in some way. Roxas stared at his friend blankly with his ocean blue eyes, and Namine, after hearing Xion's statement, started to look back and forth at Ventus and Roxas as well.

"Wow, she's right!" Namine exclaimed in awe. "Roxas is littler...but other than that you look identical..."

"Huh..." Ventus muttered thoughtfully, looking at Roxas. It was true that they had the same exact eyes, and also the same sandy color of hair...except that Roxas's hair was pretty flat and unstyled. Suddenly, Ventus had an idea. "Hey, Roxas! I'll style your hair for you," he offered suddenly. Roxas scratched his head, confused on why Ventus was giving him that offer.

"Eh? Why, Uncle Ventus?"

"You'll see," was all that Ventus revealed, though flinched again at the 'Uncle' title. Apparently, Roxas already forgot their agreement. "Come on, it'll be fun!"

"Oh...kay..." Roxas said slowly, letting Ventus pull him up from the fallen tree. Xion jumped up as well.

"I wanna come and watch!" she said, showing a little excitement. Ventus smiled and nodded.

"Sure! Just follow us...Namine, are you coming?" Ventus noticed that the blond haired girl had not mover from her position, and was flipping open to a clean page in her sketchbook as she carefully selected a crayon from the box sitting beside her. Namine looked up as Ventus addressed her and contently shook her head. "Okay then...let's go!" Ventus exclaimed as he lead the the way. The two kids followed behind him.

As the three disappeared to the indoors, Namine gazed out into the distance, and saw shadows of Sora, Riku, and Kairi playing in the water. Two taller figures - Terra and Aqua - stood on the sandy beach, out of the water, watching the children have a good time. Namine smiled at the scene and , though she was too far away to get a clear reference, started to draw the scene, using just those shadows in the distance, and her imagination.

_~Later that day~_

"Hey, Sora!" The sun was starting to set, and little Sora was lazily collapsed on the sand, taking a nap to recharge all that energy that he spent that day. The voice woke him up, and he sat up with effort, looking around with slightly closed eyes. He recognized the voice to be his brother's, and yawned as he rubbed his eyes.

"Huh? Roxas?" he sighed after a massive yawn. When he finished rubbing his eyes, he saw a figure standing in front of him. It was a boy the same age as he was, grinning smugly down at him.

"Sora, check out my hair!" Roxas chirped, gesturing at his newly styled hair. Sora's reaction was to freak out.

"Ahhhh! U-u-u-u-" he stuttered, jumping up. "UNCLE VENTUS! YOU SHRUNK!" Roxas laughed at him. This was the exact scenario that Ventus said would happen.

"No, it's me, Roxas!" he explained to his brother. At that moment, Xion ran up to the twins, smiling broadly.

"Ventus fixed Roxas's hair! It looks really cool now," she chirped, nearing dancing around. Sora took a few moments to piece it together.

"Oh...Roxas, you look exactly like Uncle Ventus!"

"I know!" Roxas said with a grin. "And Uncle Ventus's plan worked! I got to scare you."

"You did not scare me!" Sora argued back stubbornly.

"Did too! You jumped up and freaked out!"

"Th-that's because you took me by surprise!"

"So? Taking you by surprise is the same as scaring you!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Hey, you guys!" Sora, Roxas, and Xion all turned towards the voice calling to them. Over at the docks stood Kairi and Riku, Kairi waving at them to get their attention, and Riku with his hands cupped at his mouth. "Our parents are calling us! It's time to go home," Riku was shouting.

"Okay, Riku!" Sora shouted back, waving to his friends. Completely forgetting their argument, he turned to Roxas and Xion. "Let's go!"

"Right!" both of them responded cheerily, and they all ran across the beach, to Riku and Kairi.

As they ran off into the distance, Ventus watched them go from up on a grassy cliff. He felt very accomplished now, after styling Roxas's hair. He even taught the boy how to style his hair himself, so now he'll look awesome all the time. It really was weird though, that Roxas looked exactly like Ventus, except younger. As Ventus pondered this, a voice suddenly spoke from behind him.

"Hey, what're you spacing out for, Ven?" This voice was followed by a ruffling of the hair, causing Ventus to spin around. He found himself facing Terra, who was wearing a smug grin on his face.

"T-Terra..." Ventus stuttered in surprise. He truthfully didn't hear him sneak up on him. There was a giggle from behind Terra, and Ventus looked over to see Aqua standing behind his tall friend.

"Who knew that you were so good with kids?" the girl asked with a smile. Ventus shrugged casually, but Terra had an answer.

"Maybe it's because he is one..." he joked mildly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ventus pouted, poking at Terra.

"It means what it means, and that is a meaning that you must seek alone to understand."

"Wha- why are you talking all wisely all of a sudden!"

"Because." Terra then turned away, not explaining anything more.

"Hey! Don't just walk away on me like that!"

Aqua started to laugh at their silliness, and after a pause, the other two joined in. They really were the best of friends. As they were standing there, the sun started to sink further beyond the horizon.

"It's getting dark...we should be heading back now," Terra sighed.

"Yeah..." Ventus answered, staring out at the endless ocean. Aqua watched the sun as well, feeling the calm wind rush through her short blue hair.

"I wish we could come here all the time," she said.

"The Academy's a busy place, though...if only there was less work to do," Terra replied.

"Well, we'll all graduate together soon, and then we can stop by more often. Right?" Ventus asked with hope. The other two smiled at him.

"Sure. All we have to do is keep our hopes up," Terra answered him.

"And our _grades_," Aqua added, nudging the two to remind them. Ventus made a sour face at that.

"It takes so much work to get perfect grades," he complained.

"Oh, come on, quit slacking off so much, Ven," Terra laughed, poking him in the cheek.

"Hey!" Ventus groaned, though was laughing as well at the same time. As the three walked to the train station, the last of the sun vanished from the horizon.


End file.
